Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

I move Labor's second reading amendment on sheet 1441:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) notes many families would not need these changes if the Prime Minister had done his job on quarantine and vaccine roll-out;

(b) further notes the Government's delay in providing certainty about Paid Parental Leave rules in relation to both JobKeeper and the COVID-19 Disaster Payment; and

(c) calls on the Government to ensure that families that rely on Paid Parental Leave are not left worse off".

Labor's second reading amendment notes that many of the families in need of this legislation would not need these changes if the Prime Minister had done his job on quarantine and the vaccine rollout. We further note the government's delay in providing certainty about paid parental leave rules in relation to both JobKeeper and the COVID-19 disaster payment. In this second reading amendment we call on the government to ensure that families who rely on paid parental leave will not be worse off.

Labor's proposed amendment to the bill before us today, the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (COVID-19 Work Test) Bill 2021, is an amendment to a scheme that Labor originally implemented and that we have always considered to be one of our core beliefs. We've always fought for the protection and strengthening of parental rights and the ability for people in Australia to be good parents. The purpose of the PPL scheme is to provide financial support to working primary carers of newborn and newly adopted children, so they can take the time off work that they need to care for a child while keeping connected to their workplace. There are two payments available, paid parental leave and dad and partner pay. This, of course, encourages the health and development of birth mothers and their children, and it promotes equality between men and women. But we know that it's still women who account for 90 per cent of all primary carers' leave. The paid parental scheme provides 18 weeks of payment at a rate based on the national minimum wage of $772.55 a week, which is a total of nearly $14,000. To be eligible for PPL, a person needs to work around one day a week or 330 hours in 10 of the last 13 months, and they cannot have had a break from work for more than 12 weeks. Parents who do not meet the paid parental leave work test may be eligible for the family tax benefit.

Last year, in the context of COVID, this parliament changed the rules so that periods on JobKeeper could be counted as work and we created an exemption so that people could remain eligible if they passed an extended work test, with people needing to work 10 out of the last 20 months. The government's amendment came some seven months after the first lockdown in March 2020. That slow response by the government—despite repeated calls by Labor and many community groups for support—created unnecessary anxiety for Australian families. Unfortunately, it also created a family tax benefit debt for those families who considered themselves to be ineligible over the seven-month period. The change to the work test ended when JobKeeper ended in March 2021. It was clear to everyone but the government that the effects of the pandemic were going to last longer than March this year, but still they had no plan for families who were struggling. Melbourne's third lockdown occurred in February and the fourth started in May. Those families had no certainty about passing the government's work test.

If passed, Labor amendment's to the bill will make the period of time spent on the COVID disaster payment count towards PPL and towards the work scheme conditions—the same arrangement as we saw for JobKeeper last year. This time, payments would be made to individuals who live or work in a declared COVID-19 hotspot and are eligible for the COVID-19 disaster payment. We have also been advised that enabling rules will ensure that parents who are relying on state government business support will, thankfully, also be eligible.

Today, without this amendment, parents who cannot meet the work test because of lockdowns will lose access to paid parental leave—hence the urgency of this bill. But, again unfortunately, as we have seen, the government has been so slow to act that the new provisions will be enacted with effect from 3 June this year, because that's when the COVID-19 disaster payment was announced. In this context, with the government confident that they would be able to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, they had decided to cut off eligibility for PPL for those who were forced out of the workplace after JobKeeper expired. They really overrated their confidence to get on top of the pandemic. And here we are with this necessary amendment to this bill, an amendment that we argued at the time should have remained in the power of the government so it could have the flexibility that's now required. It is another late response from a fumbling and out-of-touch government that hasn't been able to keep up with this pandemic. It took three months for the government to, again, be shamed into offering support to families in lockdowns across Australia. This slow, last-minute response has caused unnecessary havoc to Australian families and their financial planning. Is it any wonder that Australia's birth rate continues to decline?

The government needs to be reaching out to all those Australian families who thought they weren't eligible for PPL because of the work test and aid them in applying. For the many parents who claimed family tax benefit in the meantime because of their work test ineligibility, again, they are now likely to have incurred a Commonwealth debt. Many Australian families have been doing it very tough over the last 18 months, and the joy of a new child, or expecting a new child, can be deeply undermined when your household is suffering economic uncertainty.

Not only have families been trying to keep working from home; they've had to raise the next generation of Australians, with confusion and slow action from this Morrison government. The fundamental change to the way people have been working has caused one of the biggest shake-ups to our everyday lives in living memory, and I note these findings from the Australian Institute of Family Studies: from the very first lockdown there was great uncertainty, anxiety and financial stress for families. The report found that, because of this giant upheaval, parents have been struggling to manage. Seven in 10 parents reported they were either actively or passively caring for children while they worked, and women are still five times more likely to take on the primary caring role and be caught in the juggling act between work and raising children. It is mainly women who are using the PPL scheme and thus it is more of a woman's issue, which makes it obvious why this government has seen it as so unimportant and has ignored it for too long. The extra burden caused by the government's lack of planning and slow response to issues like the eligibility test for the PPL scheme was, Labor feels, completely unnecessary.

People who are not living in a Commonwealth declared hotspot but who have been stood down or have lost hours because of COVID are not eligible, and their access for PPL may now be denied. These parents should not be missing out. If the government had reintroduced the national JobKeeper program, they wouldn't be. In an effort to save face over poor handling of this pandemic and to pretend that everything's fine, the government has failed Australian families yet again. These families are still suffering and having to work under the same stresses even if they are not in an arbitrary hotspot, and they cannot be ignored by this lazy and out-of-touch government.

Currently, there are work test exemptions to the work test for women working in dangerous jobs, such as jockeys and women with pregnancy related illnesses. And there was no work test exemption for women who would otherwise meet the work test but for the impact of family violence, including for people dealing with the impact of family violence and escaping domestic violence. So, yesterday in the House, Labor moved a detailed amendment urging the minister to consider taking action to address the significant shortcomings in the scheme. It mirrored Labor's private member's bill, the Fair Work Amendment (Ten Days Paid Domestic and Family Violence Leave) Bill 2020. This is because Labor knows that keeping people safe from the impact of family violence is everyone's business, and everyone must take responsibility and show leadership. Labor is still the front fighter in relation to fixing these issues. In response to this pressure, I'm pleased that the government has finally amended this bill to give the secretary the power to make rules to make someone exempt, something that we suggested needed to happen because of the pandemic as well as these kinds of issues affecting women in a variety of circumstances. We're glad to see that people experiencing domestic violence will finally be able to be exempted, but it shouldn't have had to come down to Labor moving an amendment for this government to have moved on this.

Family and domestic violence is the leading cause of death, disability and illness among women aged between 15 and 44. Two out of every three women who experience domestic and family violence are, of course, in the workplace, so the workplace is a very important component of the government's family violence policy response. Fleeing family violence takes time, planning, effort and resources. It causes upheaval and it can be costly, financially and mentally. We know about the fear and anxiety of having to leave a violent or abusive relationship. I can't imagine doing that at a time when you're also pregnant and worried about how you will be able to afford to have your baby and leave a relationship if you were to become ineligible for the PPL that you were expecting. No-one should have to choose between their livelihood and their safety.

After years of calling for this, we finally have a bill that can make a huge difference to women escaping or dealing with domestic violence by allowing this exemption to the work test and continued access to PPL, and I thank the government for moving on this. We're very glad to see these changes. We know we have to continue to hold this slow and ineffective government to account for the rights of families and women. Strong and supportive parental support in the public system is the key to a progressive and productive society. We will continue to fight for the rights of Australian families in this room and across the country.